


The Fans Make The Experience Unique

by silveradept



Category: R.O.D: Read or Die & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/F, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 14:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11602635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Both Nenene and Hisami are on the same "meet  the fans" cruise and spend some time with their bodyguards. As events go, this one is pretty tame. The power goes out only once, and they get locked in somewhere only once.





	The Fans Make The Experience Unique

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Swirl_O_Whirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swirl_O_Whirl/gifts).



"Do you ever get bored?" she had asked. At the time, Nenene recalled, Hisami had been ten, and Nenene had been more interested in how such a young child was already asking the same questions her older fans were wondering about than in answering the question honestly.

Nenene laughed. She'd given an answer that her publisher had provided for the question at the time. Neither of them had known that it would turn out to be so accurate.

Hisami looked up from her book. "Sumiregawa-sensei--"

"Nenene. Or I'll torture you in return, Hishiishi-san."

"Nenene," Hisami said quietly. While they had both been on their share of adventures related to their affiliations with paper users, and were both published, well-selling authors, Hisami did not feel that her age or experience would ever allow her to address the older writer so familiarly.

"Yeah?"

Hisami smiled. Nenene always let enough roughness into her voice when she wanted to be casual. Or threatening. Hisami looked like she wasn't sure Nenene had done it intentionally.

"You were laughing about something," Hisami said.

"Oh, right. Remember what I told you when you asked me if I got bored with writing?"

"'The fans always make writing a unique experience,'" they said together.

Nenene hadn't known about Yomiko's gift at the time. Or that Yomiko wasn't the only one who had it. Or that she would end up with a group that looked kind of like a family, if you caught them at the right angle. And maybe squinted a little. She was glad to have the extra inspiration (and, honestly, the extra danger and adventure) in Anita, Maggie, and Michelle, but she knew that without Anita's help, there would be no way she could handle all of them by herself. 

When her publisher had called and told her she was going to go on a "meet the fans" cruise to build up support for her next novel, she hadn't had to argue too much to get all the paper users to come along as well. Maybe this time nothing would disrupt her trip.

Nenene closed her own book, a light novel adaptation of someone's fanfiction of a manga series whose author she had agreed to exchange blurbs with, and glanced around to see what their bodyguards were up to. Yomiko was busily working through a stack of advance reader's and review copies Nenene had saved for her. Anita was happily splashing around in the pool under Maggie's supervision, and Michelle was...busily being courted by every man that thought he had a shot, and stared at by all the others. Nenene understood romance well - she had several bestsellers to prove that. By now, Nenene understood that nobody around her gave her the same feelings she was writing about. Nenene appreciated being part of a group that thought of her as an author and friend instead of as some past-due baby machine.

Satisfied that everyone was close enough in case this public event turned out like all the other ones, Nenene turned her attention back to Hisami, who was tilting her head to the side.

"Nenene, do you hear that?"

What Nenene said in response was drowned out by what Hisami had been listening to - a siren loud enough to make sure everyone was paying attention to it. The loudspeaker blared a request to go to the designated shelter areas. Before the announcement began to repeat itself, all four paper users were at their chairs.

"Nene-neesan, we need to go." Yomiko and Michelle were urgently gesturing for Nenene to get up.

"Hisa-chan, follow me." Anita tugged on Hisami's arm, trying to drag her on the same direction.

Hisami looked impressed. Nenene was used to it at this point, and let Yomiko lead her wherever it was the four had already decided was a safe spot. It looked like a custodial closet, but it could fit six comfortably, and so Nenene went in.

Then the lights went out.

"Umm..." Hisashi said, "...the door is locked."

"The loudspeaker stopped, too," Anita added.

"Finally, some quiet time!" Yomiko said, sounding delighted at the prospect of being locked in a closet. "I can catch up on my reading without having to worry about anything."

"How, exactly, do you plan on--"

The dark room lit up as three flashlights clicked on, illuminating Maggie, Michelle, and Yomiko's faces in varying forms of bliss as they read the pages in front of them. Nenene could just make out Anita scowling in the background, before Anita turned her own flashlight on to try and work at unlocking the door from the inside.

"Um, Sumi--Nenene?" Hisami's voice startled Nenene by coming from behind where she had thought the wall was. "Could you help me? I have copyedits that are due soon, and I'm still very new at telling my editor what I want to keep and what she can change."

"Uh, sure, but didn't you only have a paperback?" Nenene hadn't seen another book in Hisami's hands. Or any other stack of papers that might have looked like it needed editing.

"Oh, yes! That was my pleasure reading book," Hisami said, nodding. "My publisher really believes in digital documents whatever possible, so all my proofs are on my tablet." Hisami's face glowed from the light of the screen that had apparently been in her pocket the entire time. Or a backpack. Or...somewhere.

Nenene shrugged. "I still like red ink and doodling over my words. I think it makes my editor look better to have to deal with me. You want to stet that," she said, pointing at a sentence on the tablet. "Every editor I know thinks that quote is Basho, but it's not. I saw the original the last time Yomiko dragged me through a book exhibit at the British Library. When did you see it?"

Nenene kept an ear out for the sounds of Anita's work, and in case the lights or loudspeakers came back on, but she had to admit that spending time with Hisami was pleasant - she was smart, had a good command of the language (for a 13 year-old), and she seemed to genuinely appreciate the help she was getting. Nenene liked her a lot more than the crowds of would-be authors that sent her (and her publisher) their manuscripts, hoping to catch a quote, a blurb, or even a scathing dismissal that they could use to fuel their own sales. Nenene often waited until everyone was out of the apartment before taking them down to the beach and throwing them out to sea.

Until a poorly-timed wave had thrown them back into her face just as Yomiko had been walking by, anyway. Now she let Anita have them as backup supplies for their missions. Nenene secretly hoped that somewhere in the world, someone could honestly say that bad prose had injured them sufficiently horribly to put them in the hospital. It was the best thing for those...things that came in her mail, really.

They had almost finished a chapter's worth of reviews when Anita waved a hand in front of Nenene's face.

"Door's open!" she said, proudly, a second before the lights turned back on. Hisami tried to hide a smile behind her tablet as Anita fumed at her big moment getting stolen by the power returning.

Hisami turned to Nenene as they exited and bowed to her far more formally than she should have.

"Thank you for your assistance," she said, smiling. "Could we keep going over the proofs back at the pool?"

Nenene couldn't remember every being that polite to, well, anyone at that age. She bowed politely in return.

"Not right now. If my watch is right, I have about five minutes to get across this ship to a meet and greet my publisher is putting on."

"Some other time, then." Hisami turned and began to chat with Anita as the two followed Maggie and Michelle, Anita occasionally yelling at them to pay attention to where they were going.

"What do you think of her, Yomiko?" Nenene said, when they were safely out of hearing.

"Her prose is magnificent," Yomiko said absently, her face equally as buried in a book as Michelle and Maggie's had been. "She reminds me a lot of you at that age."

"I was never that polite," Nenene said, gently pushing Yomiko out of the way of a column she would have walked into.

"You were never that frightened," Yomiko corrected her. "You knew them what you wanted to be and what you needed to achieve it. Writing is your passion, and there's not much that can distract you from it. Not even dark and crowded rooms."

Nenene laughed. "I suppose. Hey, do you want to take a bet on whether someone will ask me if I get bored?"

Yomiko didn't reply. Which was just as well, because Nenene looked over in time to notice the name of the room they were just passing. Turning Yomiko, Nenene beamed as, for the first time in years, she arrived on time to an author event scheduled after an adventure. 

Yomiko peeked over her book at Nenene as she entered the room. She would always love books, that was true. But she would also always love her favorite author as a close second. Being near was enough for both of them.


End file.
